A telephone system is a type of communications network, and a telephone system may include Network Elements (NEs) such as central offices or groups thereof in which telephone computer systems control corresponding portions of a telephone switching network in accordance with subscriber requirements and subscriber line configurations.
Subscriber services information may include such items as class of service (e.g., business or residential), call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, the billing plan desired, the long distance carrier desired, the maintenance plan desired, etc. Subscriber line configurations may include such items as the number and types of lines at the subscriber's home or business, which equipment at the subscriber's home or business is owned by the subscriber and which equipment is owned by the telephone company, the type and location of the equipment, information as to leased lines, etc. In a typical telephone system many parameters (for example, well over a hundred, and sometimes a few hundred parameters) may be needed to describe the services and line configurations for a single subscriber.
To provide a more responsive interface between one or more (in some cases as many as several hundred) central offices of a telephone network and telephone company customer service representatives or other telephone company personnel or systems, an Element Management System (EMS) may be used. Such an EMS may maintain subscriber data in a database which can more quickly and accurately respond to queries from telephone company personnel or automated systems without significantly degrading the switching performance of the telephone network.